I bought my Z1 last night at Walmart. I took it home and took a few pictures with it and was a little disappointed. The problem I have is the autofocus in a room with normal lighting. I was trying to take a picture of my cat, who was laying in a chair under my dining room table, in a room with normal lighting and I had to take the picture four times before I got one that wasn't blurred. Even then there's noise in the picuture. Here's a link to two pictures I took last night:http://www.imagestation.com/album/?id=4289029951
In the first picture, the orange tabby, you'll see the wall behind the cat has a lot of noise in it. In the second, the calico, you can see the noise (or CA) as purple coloring in her coat. I know this is picky but my Canon A20 is capable of these shots .
I did use the Z1 to take some pictures today out doors (where I think this camera is intended to excel) and in full lighting and the pictures turned out really nice. No noise can be seen in shots where I would expect it. I've seen shots on-line with a lot of CA in them but in my shots it's been minimal. Just a slight fringe on one shot of a bottle in front of a window (I was intentionally trying to get the fringe). The movie's turn out really nice too.
In the end I think I'm going to sell my Z1 to a buddy that's interested in it and go for a Canon A70. I wanted a camera with a high zoom built in but I think I need one better suited for lower light indoor shooting.

The problem is with the auto focus. It was not able to get a lock in lower light situations. It was a room with normal lighting.
I had a couple of pictures in low light that were shot at ISO50.... can't find them. Here are a couple that were shot yesterday. All the shots in both albums were shot in Auto mode.
I didn't really need a camera with a telephoto lens, it's just nice to have. Most of my pictures are taken at family gatherings and such but occasionally I like to have the telephoto. My old camera is a Canon A20 and I have a 2.7x telephoto that I can screw onto the adapter. My decision is to sell the Z1 to my friend, get a A70 or A80, and use my current accessories with it.

There are a couple of pictures in the new album at Imagestation.

The Z1 handling is great. It feels solid despite being made of plastic. The one concern I had with it's build is the mechanism use to go from the LCD to the view finder and the lens extension. The LSD to viewfinder actually rattles a bit during normal movement. It's happened on three Z1s that I've held. At Walmart they promised to hold one for me but when I got there I found that they decided to put the last Z1 on their display counter. I used that opportunity to abuse the camera before I drove to a different city to pick mine up. I bent the battery cover back, played with the lens extention and worked the hell out of their SD media cover. It held up well.
In good light it focuses very quick. Minimal shutter lag. Like I said, I my one big gripe was the low light focussing. It didn't seem to want to lock in these situations.
I think it's a good camera just not the what I need.

In the end I think I'm going to sell my Z1 to a buddy that's interested in it and go for a Canon A70. I wanted a camera with a high zoom built in but I think I need one better suited for lower light indoor shooting.

So let me try to clear this. Is it your opinion that Canon A70 has better picture quality?

Because, based on the characteristics of the camera I'm pretty settled on buying the Z1, but this decision is still depending on reviews like Steve's or Digital Photography Review. Picture quality was exactly one of my concerns regarding the Z1.

So let me try to clear this. Is it your opinion that Canon A70 has better picture quality?

I think the Z1 is a good camera. The friend that bought it from me likes it a lot. He's more knowledgable about the cameras and thier manual settings and such. I'm a novice and prefer to put it on Auto and point and shoot. I don't want to have to mess with the manual settings to get a good picture indoors. If I'm taking snap shots the opportunity is gone if I have to adjust settings. Outdoors is where the Z1 shines. It's very fast locking the auto focus and the image quality is good. Indoors, in my short experience with the camera, I found that it has trouble locking in. So in short, it suits him well but I need a camera with excellent Auto settings and the Canon A70 has that.

It is my opinion that Canon makes good digital cameras. This is based on the professional reviews and my personal experience with a Canon A20 and A40. I also decided on the A70 or A80 because all of my accessories for the A20 will work with these cameras. I only need to buy a new adapter for $20 to use the lenses I have for the A20.

As far as the CA. The worst CA I had with the Z1 was when taking a picture of a Galilean thermometer. If there was a reflection from the flash, there was a puple fringe.

Quote:

Not that bad... only some CA here and there, especially in the last picture with the movable tool-box-thing and the clock.

Not too bad at all on the outdoor shots. Like I said, it's the indoor shots I have problems with. I'm not a professional or even a hobbiest when it comes to photography. I just want good pictures. If you notice on the picture you mention, there is noise or a graininess in that picture on the tan door jam in the upper left hand corner. I'm probably being picky. I'll post a picture later tonight of the tool box taken with my Canon A20 for comparison. It's not really a comparable camera, but I have a feeling it's not going to have the CA or noise. I'll try to duplicate the other shots as well but it's a little more over cast today.

I think the menu system is great on the Z1. It's very intuitive.
I also think that some of my dislikes on the Z1 are just because I'm familiar with the Canon A series. I like that I don't have to lift the flash if I want to use it. To me, having a flash that lifts up and down like on the Z1 is just another connection that can go bad. I'm also use to the automatic lens cover. But that's a feature on the A series that is not on the Z1 that can go bad.

Kilgart - I played around with the video a lot more and noticed the sounds you mentioned.

During playback i heard sounds that sounded like someone typing on a keyboard, not very loud, but I could hear it. I went back and reviewed all of the movies i have recorded, about 40 and I could only hear it on my very quiet indoor movies, and not all of them.

I haven't had any troubles with the autofocus, even indoors in low light. I have been reading the manual, and have started to experienment with different settings. I have taken most of my pictures afterwork right at dusk, and have been very pleased with the pictures, and autofocus.

I have been using my new I-C3 rechargeables, and they have lasted longer than the alkalines so far, although i haven't had a stopwatch on them.